BOOKworms are going to be in seventh heaven next year with another starry line-up at the Essex Book Festival.

Writers of all kinds will be descending on the county in March, with Melvyn Bragg, Joan Bakewell and Roy Hattersley among the literary celebrities attending.

Now in its tenth year, the Essex Book Festival is growing bigger and better, with more events taking place at more venues than ever before.

The highlight of next year’s festival has to be former politician Roy Hattersley, now a successful author and journalist, who will be sharing his view of Britain between the world wars from his latest book, Borrowed Time, at Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford on March 10.

Another literary highflyer, Melvyn Bragg, will also be in the county town, this time at the Civic Theatre on March 2.

He will be talking about writers who draw on their own lives for inspiration, including his own autobiographical novels.

Joan Bakewell, another writer and broadcaster, will be at Felsted School, and talk about her first novel, All the Nice Girls, a story of love and loss in which the wartime events of 1942 impact on the next generation.

Closer to home, one event not to be missed will be a visit by literary critic John Sutherland, a old boy of Colchester Royal Grammar School, who chronicled his Colchester childhood in The Boy Who Loved Books.

He will be sharing his insights into the books, songs and films that shaped his life at Colchester Sixth Form College, North Hill, on March 9.

Barbara Erskine, one of Essex’s best-loved authors, will be talking at Manningtree library on March 18, about her latest best-selling novel, The Warrior’s Princess, which weaves together the past and the present.

Essex journalists, writers and biographers, Francis Wheen and Simon Heffer, will be talking about the challenges of writing biographies and bringing your subject to life at Helena Romanes School and Sixth Form Centre in Great Dunmow on March 10.

To coincide with the Essex-Jiangsu Festival, there will be several events exploring life in China.

Frances Woo, head of the British Library Chinese department, will be talking about the West’s fascination with the country at the Essex Record Office in Chelmsford on March 16.

Also on the programme are Chinese writer Xinran, who will be discussing her groundbreaking work of oral history about life in 20th century China at Chelmsford library on March 19, and Liu Hong, who will be talking about what it is like to be born in China but living in England when she appears at Colchester library on March 11.

The box office opens on January 5 and can be contacted on 01206 573948.

For full details of what’s on, visit essexbookfestival.org.uk now or pick up a festival brochure from your library.